One of the basic requirements of any business is to justify any dollar spent in marketing efforts, technology upgrades or employees training as most of the time these expenses are considered as supporting functions rather than core operation. Even if these expenditures are well thought of and have reasons such as to increase productivity, increase revenue or raise employee satisfaction. Management has one basic question whenever such initiatives are discussed. The question is “what is the business need for this particular initiative”. Even though the qualitative benefits can overwhelming, but it is a rational questions and a well written business case having both quantitative and qualitative analysis would be a good answer to the particular questions.
After speaking with several managers and consultants, I have realized that there is a wide understanding of what is a business case. Several consulting companies have mastered the art of writing business cases and no two companies resonate with the structure and basic ingredients of a comprehensive business case. Each format of a business case is as unique as a company. There are some generic formats which is more common than other. One of such format includes the following pieces:
- Fact/Situation Analysis
- Core Issue
- Alternatives
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Recommendations
This is a basic skeleton and can be customized based on the requirements and situations.
There are many reasons why a company writes a business case. These are mentioned below:
- Defining current situation and acknowledging the gap
- Alignment of strategic directions
- To validate business requirement
- Justify investments (by creating Return on Investments model)
- In-depth analysis of alternatives
- Selection of the best of the breed and process
Understanding a need for business case and writing it in a correct structure not only provided a good insight of the issue and the solution but also it gives a greater clarity to the strategic direction of the management.
